Monday, November 16, 2009

No Wonder the Recovery is Slow

Here's a stimulus success story: In Arizona's 9th Congressional District, 30 jobs have been saved or created with just $761,420 in federal stimulus spending. At least that's what the website set up by the Obama Administration to track the $787 billion stimulus says.

There's one problem, though: There is no 9th Congressional District in Arizona; the state has only eight Congressional Districts.

D'oh@! Joe Biden must be shocked, shocked that somebody is messing with Joe.

The question is whether this is bald-faced fraud or a waste of 18 million for web services? Checking locally, the Recovery site shows that the University of Tennessee in Memphis got multiple smaller grants that totaled in the millions with very few saved or created positions. The U of Memphis got 27 million dollars according to the site with nothing showing in either the created or saved department. If not an error..

Googling a bit, this story talks about recovery funds offsetting a state budget cut for the university but doesn't say how much. In early November this story appeared:

According to the Tennessee Board of Regents' competitive grant summary, U of M has applied for more than 50 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act-related research grants from federal departments and national organizations. The school had received nearly $5 million from 11 stimulus grants by early October.

Surely the exact figures are out there somewhere but finding anything on the recovery site is about as easy as surfing in a pool. Overall it's nice to see ABC News...or anybody for that matter...paying attention.